It is known in the art to cut fiberglass fibers which are initially in the form of long strands of fiberglass, on a machine having an anvil roller and a cutter roller. The strands of fiberglass are passed between the anvil roller and the cutter roller, with the anvil roller having an outer sleeve or cover made of an elastomeric material, for example, rubber, and the cutter blades on the cutter roll pressing into the elastomeric material, thereby cutting the strands of fiberglass. The cutting action can best be described as bending the fibers sufficiently to cause the brittle fibers to break. The cut fibers are then used for purposes well known in the art. Such a machine is manufactured by Finn and Fram, Inc. of Arieta, Calif.
Some fiber production processes yield the fibers in the form of sheets or mats rather than in long strands. To produce short lengths of fibers from sheets or mats, the sheets or mats may be first slit and then cut to length. At this point, if the mat is loose, it may separate by itself into individual cut fibers. If, however, the mat fibers adhere to each other, then the diced squares could be used as they are or separated into individual fibers in a subsequent operation.
In some processes, matting made from fiberglass or other fibers is cut and shaped into forms, for example as defined by a mold, after which a setting resin is added to form a final product. A by-product of such operations is waste matting, which often of little use and is discarded causing loss due to the inability to use the discarded waste.
It is also known in the art that other materials, such as carbon fiber materials ma be formed into mats or sheets. One use for a matting of a kind made from the carbon fiber is for use in automobile brake linings. This generally requires the matting to be cut into smaller pieces of the generally square or rectangular shape.
There exists therefore in the art a need for a machine to conveniently convert brittle fiber material in the form of a matting or sheet into smaller pieces of the generally square or rectangular shape. In the case of the carbon fiber material, these diced pieces may be useful in and of themselves. For certain fiberglass molding jobs, the diced fiberglass matting may also be useful in and of itself. In addition, the diced matting of fiberglass material, depending upon the initial manner of forming the matting from which the diced material is obtained, may be useful as a first step toward separating individual fibers of fiberglass from the small pieces resulting from dicing waste mats of fiberglass material in mat form, to thereby obtain fibers useful for making new mats and for reinforcement in composite materials as is known in the art. In this manner, the waste fiberglass matting may be used to create diced fiberglass matting or to recover fiberglass fibers from the waste matting, which fibers are then useful in creating new matting and for other applications.
Several principles of slitting mats like fiberglass are known in the art. These could in principal be used to slit such mats immediately prior to cross cutting with a fiberglass cutter for long strands as described above in order to dice the material as required.
The present invention incorporates a novel slitting principal which can be economically integrated into a fiberglass cutter for the purpose of dicing the sheets or matting of brittle abrasive fibers. An object of the present invention is to provide this novel slitter both by itself and also in combination with a fiberglass cutter for the purpose of dicing sheets or matting of brittle abrasive fibers.
The novel slitter of the present invention features a slicer-roller in conjunction with the anvil roller, with the slicer-roller having a plurality of discs which depress the matting into the elastomeric material of the anvil roller sufficiently to break the brittle fiber material, thereby converting the matting into strips. Feed fingers on the mat between the discs press the mat against the anvil roll insuring a positive feed action and preventing the mat from getting caught between the discs. The slicer-roller pressure against the anvil roller is adjustable so that the correct pressure can be applied for a clean slitting action without excessive pressure which might slice into the anvil roller. After passing through the slicer-roller, the strips are then fed between the anvil roller and cutting roller which cuts the strips between successive cutting blades on the cutter roller, thereby forming diced fiber matting of a generally square or rectangular shape.
It is, therefore, a general object of the present invention to provide a machine which will slit and also dice fiberglass or other brittle abrasive fiber material in the form of sheets or matting.
A feature of the present invention resides in the utilization of a slicer-roller alone, and also in conjunction with the cutter roller to perform dicing, with the slicer-roller having a plurality of cutting discs which depress the matting into the elastomeric material of the anvil roller sufficiently to break the brittle fiber material forming the mat, thereby converting the matting into strips of brittle fiber material. The strips are then conveniently fed between the anvil roller and a cutting roller which cuts the strips between successive cutting blades on the cutter roller, thereby forming diced fiber matting having a generally square or rectangular shape. Another feature of the present invention is to provide for a variable pressure application for the slicer-roller against the anvil roller.
A further feature of the present invention is to provide feed fingers to guide the matting, after it is sliced, into the operating zone of the cutting roller and anvil roller.
These features of the present invention have been given to broadly understand the present invention and in order to more fully appreciate the invention as described below in further detail. These and other features of the present invention will be further understood by reference to the detailed description and the drawings in which like-reference numerals have been used to identify like elements.